‘Not yet payback’ Pro-invasion bloggers criticize Russia’s Defense Ministry for failing to retaliate for Ukraine’s drone strikes on strategic airfields
Prominent writers in Russia’s Z-blogosphere — the constellation of pro-invasion Telegram accounts with millions of readers — are ridiculing the Defense Ministry’s claim that the June 6 nighttime strikes across Ukraine constitute retaliation for Kyiv’s daring drone attacks on June 1 that damaged several strategic aircraft. Russia’s nighttime strikes were “routine,” bloggers complained, and fell short of a proportional response to the damage wrought by Operation “Spiderweb.” (Writers also cite the weekend’s deadly train derailment outside Bryansk, which officials have called a Ukrainian terrorist attack.) Pro-invasion bloggers express hope that Moscow is merely laying the groundwork for a truly massive attack in retaliation for the “Spiderweb” strikes.
Before dawn on June 6, Russia launched a large strike on Kyiv, killing at least three people and injuring another 17, according to the city’s mayor. Other Russian attacks reportedly injured 11 people in Ternopil and 27 in Lutsk. The Ukrainian military reported that Russia launched a total of 407 drones and 44 missiles.
On its Telegram channel, Russia’s Defense Ministry called the strikes a “response to the terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov used similar language, telling reporters on Friday that “everything happens within the framework of the special military operation.” Peskov argued that Russian operations in Ukraine are a “daily” retaliation for actions by Kyiv, which he said has now “taken on all the characteristics of a terrorist regime.”
Journalists at Agentstvo studied reactions from Z-bloggers and found consternation at claims that the June 6 attacks were anything special. Several writers noted that Russia launched even more drones at Ukraine on June 1, hours before Operation “Spiderweb.”
“Yet another routine ‘Geranium’ [Shahed 136] drone and missile strike on Ukraine — not yet payback, just continuing the march to victory,” wrote Kursk blogger Roman Alekhin to his nearly 175,000 subscribers on Telegram. “The response will definitely be larger-scale and more dramatic. Right now, this is about finding and taking out their air defenses, so when the big retaliation happens, more of the ‘special deliveries’ find their targets and fewer civilians get hurt.”
“Basically, it was nothing super crazy (despite all the evening scare tactics). Even the number of drones they used wasn’t record-breaking,” wrote Yury Podolyaka (whose audience exceeds 3.1 million subscribers).
The Telegram channel ZHIVOV Z (111,000 subscribers) noted that Russia’s nighttime launches included a successful Iskander strike on a Patriot air defense system outside Kyiv, but the channel likened the attack to dozens of past operations. “Let’s hope the devastating revenge strike is still coming,” ZHIVOV Z wrote.
VGTRK state media employee Alexander Sladkov asked his 839,000 subscribers why Russia isn’t conducting more sabotage attacks against Ukraine’s military and industrial facilities. “I know for certain that we can and know how [to do it],” he wrote, adding that he doesn’t understand why Russia doesn’t simply “knock out Ukraine's entire energy system at once.”
Operation “Spiderweb” targeted Russian air bases in at least five regions on June 1. Available evidence suggests that Moscow may have lost up to 10 percent of certain aircraft types. Kyiv claims to have hit 41 strategic aircraft. President Volodymyr Zelensky said preparations for the surprise operation began 18 months prior. He stated that “Spiderweb” was coordinated from inside Russia, at an “office” near one of the Federal Security Service’s regional headquarters. “This represents our most extensive long-range operation to date. Of course, we can’t reveal everything now, but these Ukrainian actions will definitely be in the history books,” Zelensky said, calling the operation’s result “absolutely brilliant.”